Rocket Stack Rank™ (RSR) aims to help casual SF fans find and discuss great original short fiction. It reviews science fiction and fantasy short stories, novelettes, and novellas, and publishes articles of interest to fans.

Pro: They do escape the nebula. Els's sacrifice of her fingers apparently communicates their plight to the alien, who diverts enough resources to save them.

Con: Or so I think. The ending it a bit confusing. It talks about sending a broadcast that there's a million-to-one chance of someone receiving, which makes it sound like they're dying, but it also mentions them leaving the deathlight (and elsewhere mentions that Els would later be drunk at a bar asking herself questions).

The physics seems a bit off. First, why is their vessel getting so cold so fast? It's surrounded by vacuum, after all. The energy to keep it warm should be tiny. Second, a nebula is very large. The odds that they just happened on a spaceship seem very, very low. And if they really did escape, what's all this talk about leaving the alien alone? I'd expect a followup visit from a big science team ASAP.

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Once a month, on the 15th, this blog posts groups of rated stories. Casual SF fans with only a few hours free can (1) use our rating, time estimate and blurb to ⚑flag a few stories to read; then for each story (2) click the title if it's a link or the Issue link to access, borrow, or purchase individual back issues with the stories; (3) read the story in an app, browser, or printed form; (4) click the 🔎︎Reviews link to see what other people think; (5) click the 🚀︎Review link for RSR's mini-review; then (6) ★rate the story so it'll appear in the ⚑★My Ratings page for use when they plan award nominations.

Once a month, on the 1st, this blog updates the previous month's stories to identify the ones Recommended Byother reviewers🏆📙﻿👍. Readers can follow the links to their reviews and use them to choose additional stories to read. The 📅Year-To-Date page is updated with all of the previous month's stories that got recommendations from anyone (not just RSR), and the ✍New Writers page is updated with the stories of any Campbell Award-eligible writers (both pages are useful for catching up if you're new to the blog).

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Note: Authors eligible for the Campbell Award are identified with a 1 or 2 superscript for their year.